August 09, 2006

Argentina's rock scene remained fairly underground and didn't thrive a whole lot in terms of homeland awareness until after the Falklands War in the 1980's when the government banned English-speaking music from radio, causing the focus to shift on the country's own scene, finally getting some musicians paid. But the British influence had already seeped in to its foundation via the assorted Beatles-worshippers and burgeoning 1960's Beat scenes in Buenos Aires and also Uruguay (whose Los Shakers were a huge influence around South America). As time progressed, the hard rock/psych scene was throwing down fully in the early 1970's: groups like Pescado Rabioso, Almendra and Kubero Diaz getting into prog realm while keeping it still primitive and powerful. Early records by Billy Bond y la Pesada del Rock and Roll (translated: "the heavy guys of rock and roll"!) sported some especially killer jams, with violinist Jorge Pinchevsky (who'd later play with Gong) jumping on board for their second album. When Bond played an outdoor Buenos Aires festival in 1972, police harrassed audience members who were moving up from the cheaper seats to the empty closer seats (at Bond's urging) and the band motivated the fans to smash the place up. The musical result of this experience was a weird, experimental opera called Tontos (1973) and You Tube now sports a mindblowing video post of the title track being performed live for a film called Rock Hasta Que Se Ponga El Sol, complete with some odd Jodorowsky-esque interruptions featuring the band lounging around in full hippie garb in a mansion. You can download video here (10.7MB mpeg). Thanks to Jesper Eklow for pointing this clip out.